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Chilean miners are free - free from what?
pineblossom
Veteran
I was listening to the radio news in the car the other night on my way to a meeting. The headlines were the successful escape of the Chilean miners.
As the news item went on to note the relief and joy at the success I felt that many families will have a joyful Christmas this year. It could have been very different. I was relieved that everything had turned for the good and the miners were being taken good care of after their ordeal of being trapped for so long.
But then the news when on about whether CNN or News Limited would get the rights for the inevitable book with movie rights attached. The comments were associated with ideas about the miners collectively bargaining or would they break ranks and negotiate as individuals. Money was of course the issue and the commentary closed after some ten minutes of discussion with the thought that the miners will ‘never have to work again’.
‘Never to have to work again’ seemed to be the universal reality of their entrapment. What was being expressed was the belief that an ‘experience’ of life must be avoided, unless, of course, one can make some large monetary gain from that experience.
I was left uncomfortable about this turn of events. Not that I did not wish the miners well. It was the underlying concept that emerged - written large - that it is not so much death that we fear, but life. Unless life was to be experience as some sort of ‘nirvana’ free from the contamination of struggle, pain and social dislocation, then life was thought best to be avoided altogether.
The idea of annihilation flourishes throughout the world. In our dualist mode of conception we look to escape, not from dualist thinking, but from thinking at all! In our collective ignorance death is the easy option - oblivion. If we cannot have the ‘never to work again’ option then the alternative appear attractive. Suicidal wars, drug addiction, intoxication in front of the TV, sexual promiscuity, self-addicted mindless chatter and endless hours on internet chat forums while all the time avoiding contact - real contact with the reality of our existence. Without real contact we will not experience pain or suffering.
It is not death that we fear - it is life.
There is danger here that we carry such a universal acceptance into our Buddhist practice. We are told to avoid samsara and embrace nirvana. Yet if we do so out of longing for escape then we have missed the message of the Buddha. Nirvana is not some sort of liberation theology. Our escape is not to opt out of pain and suffering. Our escape is from dualist thinking which limits our capacity to help others. Our liberation is a path of compassion not the exit door from life.
As the news item went on to note the relief and joy at the success I felt that many families will have a joyful Christmas this year. It could have been very different. I was relieved that everything had turned for the good and the miners were being taken good care of after their ordeal of being trapped for so long.
But then the news when on about whether CNN or News Limited would get the rights for the inevitable book with movie rights attached. The comments were associated with ideas about the miners collectively bargaining or would they break ranks and negotiate as individuals. Money was of course the issue and the commentary closed after some ten minutes of discussion with the thought that the miners will ‘never have to work again’.
‘Never to have to work again’ seemed to be the universal reality of their entrapment. What was being expressed was the belief that an ‘experience’ of life must be avoided, unless, of course, one can make some large monetary gain from that experience.
I was left uncomfortable about this turn of events. Not that I did not wish the miners well. It was the underlying concept that emerged - written large - that it is not so much death that we fear, but life. Unless life was to be experience as some sort of ‘nirvana’ free from the contamination of struggle, pain and social dislocation, then life was thought best to be avoided altogether.
The idea of annihilation flourishes throughout the world. In our dualist mode of conception we look to escape, not from dualist thinking, but from thinking at all! In our collective ignorance death is the easy option - oblivion. If we cannot have the ‘never to work again’ option then the alternative appear attractive. Suicidal wars, drug addiction, intoxication in front of the TV, sexual promiscuity, self-addicted mindless chatter and endless hours on internet chat forums while all the time avoiding contact - real contact with the reality of our existence. Without real contact we will not experience pain or suffering.
It is not death that we fear - it is life.
There is danger here that we carry such a universal acceptance into our Buddhist practice. We are told to avoid samsara and embrace nirvana. Yet if we do so out of longing for escape then we have missed the message of the Buddha. Nirvana is not some sort of liberation theology. Our escape is not to opt out of pain and suffering. Our escape is from dualist thinking which limits our capacity to help others. Our liberation is a path of compassion not the exit door from life.
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Comments
Well said. Kinda takes the wind out from under the wings of those spiritually minded persons who have flown too high. Don't fly too high nor too low.
(Sort of shows that not ALL time spent on the net is wasted.
Feel obliged to add though that if I was one of the rescued miners, I'd be pretty chuffed at the thought that I wouldn't have to go back down a hole in the ground in order to earn a living.
But that takes nothing from your post though.
If I die doing what puts food on the table for my family, or if I die in some fantastical and crazy situation (falling down upwards escalators, parachute not-opening, crossing a busy intersection and getting clobbered by a falling meteor... etc) then I have died a good death.
I live as well as I can, day by day. None of my triumphs or failures precede me, but I have lived well.